Dark for Dark

Rebecca Zolkower’s harmonic three-piece band, Dark for Dark, will be playing new songs from an upcoming record at The Company House. They’ll be joined by the like-minded Old Cabin (Jona Barr) from Whitehorse, Yukon, and Ottawa’s Pony Girl. As the nights get chillier, this show will warm you up like knitted wool socks.

St. Cecilia Concert Series

Sunday, September 20-Sunday, November 29, various performances and showtimes, St. Cecilia, 6199 Chebucto Road, packages $45-$275

For over 25 years, the St. Cecilia Concert Series has delighted audiences with classical music performances. This year is no exception. The season opener welcomes sonatas by Schubert, Clarke, Chausson and Schumann by Philippe Djokic and Lynn Stodola, as well as the music of John Plant and an operatic Romeo and Juliet.

Symphony Week AND Culture Days

Tuesday, September 22-Sunday, September 27, various times & locations, free

A week of live popular and classical music performances featuring conductor Martin MacDonald and mezzo-soprano Lindsay Connolly. With performances taking place at the VIA Rail Station, Woodlawn Public Library, Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, Alderney Landing and the airport, Symphony Nova Scotia proves that a great orchestra can take on any venue.

Melissa Etheridge

Melissa Etheridge, one of the most badass women in rock and roll history, returns to Halifax for a powerful and inspiring show at Casino Nova Scotia. Two-time Grammy winner Etheridge has been a gay champion since coming out in 1993, but her confessional, anthemic pop-inspired folk-rock is loved by everyone. Her songs will own karaoke nights forever.

Whitehorse

Melissa McLelland and Luke Doucet are redefining #RelationshipGoals. The husband-and-wife duo were accomplished singer-songwriters in their own right before forming Whitehorse to make sweet music together. The pair is currently touring in support of their latest album, Leave No Bridge Unburned.

Symphony Nova Scotia with Buck 65

Symphony NS has added some unlikely collaborators to its 2015-16 season. The multi-talented Halifax son Buck 65—CBC Radio host, turntable legend, rapper, author—returns to the Rebecca Cohn stage for a second (and then third) go-round with SNS in early October.

Gob

Having just released Apt 13, their first album in seven years, Gob is hitting the road to show off the fruits of their labour. Canada’s answer to the exploding American pop-punk scene, Gob’s guitar-driven tracks still burst with throwback punk licks and killer harmonies, but their tone has become more upbeat as the band has matured. As vocalist Tom Thacker explains, “We’re all pretty stoked on life in general, and this one is more in tune with that attitude.”

Down with the sickness

Jeremie Saunders is sick. Like, really sick. The actor-slash-yoga instructor has lived with cystic fibrosis–a genetic disorder that claims the life of more Canadian children and young adults than any other–his entire life. There’s no cure for CF, and affected people have very short life expectancies, which Saunders says “sounds really shitty, and it kind of is.”

Tired of the stigma and “awkward” conversations surrounding his illness, Saunders enlisted the help of two of his friends, Brian Stever and Taylor MacGillivary, to start Sickboy, a funny, weekly podcast dedicated to finding, in Saunders’ words, “the lightness in the absurdity that is living with chronic or terminal disease.”

Sickboy has already recorded six episodes, speaking with guests about their experiences living with afflictions like brain cancer, bipolar disorder and plateau iris syndrome. Saunders is the guest of honour on Sickboy’s premiere episode, talking in-depth and cracking jokes about his life with cystic fibrosis–“we don’t have to be weird about it!”

After putting out a call for people living with chronic or terminal illnesses to appear as guests, Saunders says the response has been overwhelming. Nearly 40 people have reached out from across North America, the UK and Africa, living with everything from colon cancer to psychosis to narcolepsy. “Not only is it really therapeutic to open up and chat, but it’s also super fascinating,” Saunders says, “it’s really interesting; the human body and how completely fucked up it can be in so many different ways.” –Lewis Rendell

Halifax Pop Explosion

Tuesday, October 20-Saturday, October 24, various times & venues, bracelets $99-$199

This year’s Halifax Pop Explosion lineup is huge. Wristbands are now on sale (with tickets soon to follow) for the annual city-wide music festival that will feature Houston’s Travi$ Scott, former Halifax electro-band Purity Ring, a symphony by Rich Aucoin, some of the best local indie rock and comedy all-stars Eric Andre and Neil Hamburger. Take the week off work.

METTALFEST 4

Celebrating its fourth anniversary, Mettalfest will take over Gus’ Pub for a weekend of gnarly longhairs thrashing to some of the country’s toughest metal bands, including Toronto’s Vesperia, winners of the Wacken Metal Battle in Germany, New Brunswick’s Hard Charger and Dischord, with local favourites Spew, Hitman, Dismember and more. Time for whiplash, time for pain.

Judas Priest

The first metal record I ever owned was 1982’s driving pounder Screaming for Vengeance, my introduction to the spikes and leather-clad operatic force of Rob Halford’s voice, a metal and LGBTQ icon. On November 10, Priest brings the Redeemer of Souls tour to the Scotiabank Centre in support of their seventeenth skin-peeling studio album.

Protest the Hero

Progressive metalheads Protest the Hero are riding a wave of nostalgia across the country, touring in celebration of the 10th anniversary of their debut full-length album, Kezia. Despite going through some member changes, PTH has announced that they’ll be restoring their original lineup for the Kezia X Tour.

Symphony Nova Scotia with Ben Caplan

Folk powerhouse Ben Caplan teams up with SNS three years after their much-acclaimed first collaboration. Caplan is set to release his latest album, Birds With Broken Wings, on September 18.

FALL ALBUM RELEASE PREVIEW

Chad VanGaalen & Seth Smith

Seed of Dorzon (Fun Dog Records} September 18

A two-part electronic album by Polaris-nominated Chad VanGaalen and Dog Day’s hero Seth Smith, Seed of Dorzon is a collaborative and experimental soundtrack conjuring eerie feelings and heavy moods.

The Stanfields

Modem Operandi (Groundswell Music) September 18

Halifax’s stage-stompers take on free speech and privacy on this full-length release. The Stanfields maintain their Celt-rock sound, but it’s coloured with alt-rock tones that drive the point home even harder.

Quiet Parade

Quiet Parade (Acadian Embassy) September 18

Quiet Parade, our local rock-folk-pop quartet, finally hits its stride on its third album. Trevor Murphy’s songs march out into the world with lyrical force as the band keeps a steady, strong pace.

Fetty Wap

Fetty Wap (300 Entertainment) September 25

I’ve yelled “Yeea-aa-h baby” from “Trap Queen” over 1,000 times. The one-eyed New Jersey rapper has set the bar high for himself with several songs of the summer; this upcoming album is make-or-break.

Joshua Van Tassel

Understar EP (Backward Music) October TBA

Halifax-Toronto producer and dance-music-maker Joshua Van Tassel returns with a EP preview of his upcoming LP, Understar, a synth experience inspired by the giant squid, quick as liquid, dark as ink.

Sheer Agony

Masterpiece (Couple Skate) October 30

The audacity of declaring that a debut LP is a masterpiece. Well, it is. They pull together several styles to make a brand new one, like Each Other or Viet Cong, and it’s just good. This is gonna rule so hard.